Prog 1812 Trifecta

[Hawkmumbler]

Slightly sad that Sensitive Klegg didn't look half as 'cute' as he did previously but that's Crtichlow's rendition for you.

[Martin Howe]

I have been too busy to visit the forum for some time, but have followed the strip - for the last few weeks everything has stopped on Sat. when the postman arrives  It's been a long, long time since I loved anything the way I loved this. 2000AD has been consistently good for a while now.

I will say, because I feel strongly about it, that I do wish Pat Mills would stop preaching and asking us to believe that War can ever be legislated away. That said, ABC was well done for what it was, the artwork outstanding, and the punchline [spoiler]"Thank you very much Mr President"[/spoiler] was very funny.

On the subject of Dirty Frank, however:

Was Judge Smiley in that H-Wagon that picked up Dirty Frank when he can in from the cold? 

That's my thinking of it.  So [spoiler]was that an early black ops mission[/spoiler] ?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to have been thinking this over the last few years.

Even before we knew about Black Ops, it felt as if the images of Frank in the snow screamed "Extra-Judicial Operation". We have already seen Hershey willing to break the rules and so it wasn't hard to think she had a squad of goons loyal to the city who would assassinate presidents, destabilise economies and blow up boxes of puppies, if the need arose.

Plus we've seen Frank kick ass and improvise almost as well as Dredd at times; he is totally dedicated to the City above all other considerations; plus he wasn't above [spoiler]torturing and murdering a corrupt judge[/spoiler] when he was temporarily back in Uniform. I've been thinking for some time that Frank must have originally been part of an covert squad long before being invalided into the Wally Squad.

Finally - the best bit for me:
[spoiler]"Chief Judge - respect the Office" - Hershey, holding a smoking gun, amongst a floor littered with dead black-ops creeps.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Wilshaw's[/spoiler] line was almost as good: [spoiler]"Or what's left of it..."[/spoiler]

Oh and it's nice to see Frank being addressed as Judge Frank, too

Well done to all concerned and here's hoping for "The Early Adventures of Black-Ops Judge Frank" someday

[Goaty]

Bloody Hell, that was a big of epic Prog in the years!

I can already guess the exact panels Goaty's going to be posting as soon as he gets his prog.  It's like a 'spot the ball' I like to play every week.

Oh gosh yeah! but I will do it tomorrow or Friday to be fair to let other people enjoy the Prog they get today...

[Banners]

Well done to all concerned and here's hoping for "The Early Adventures of Black-Ops Judge Frank" someday

No doubt published by IDW.

[Goaty]

I KNEW IT! That Jack Point [spoiler]is THE COLD DECK[/spoiler] to the readers!

[a chosen rider]

Tough to review something this awesome without resorting to sounds and exclamation marks.  So, not so much a proper review as a scattering of random thoughts.

* Critchlow's art works well as a melding of styles, and some of those big splash panels of the godcity are amazing.  Props to Simon Bowland for the complicated lettering job tying all the strips together, too.

* Dirty Frank still gets all the best lines "Behold friendliness" cracked me up.  And "Dirty Frank embraces the collaborative spirit."  And of course.... [spoiler]"Justice."[/spoiler]

* Interesting to hear Smiley referring to Dredd as 'Joseph', after discussion over use of that name in the IDW Dredd.  Smiley using it somehow conjures images of Dredd as a child clone, perhaps because it's the only time we've seen it used is on the clone tanks.  I don't really think Smiley's old enough to have known him back then, but it's hard to tell.

* The awkward encounter between [spoiler]Dredd and DeMarco[/spoiler] is fun, though I'm greedy for more.  Also, [spoiler]continued first name terms from Dredd?  Ooh.  Still some feelings there...[/spoiler]  I actually didn't mind the [spoiler]Point/DeMarco stuff in this issue, maybe because she seemed more like her old self than generic noir dame in what few panels she had[/spoiler].  I can definitely see this being a final wrap-up for Simping Detective, and I think it works pretty well that way.

* Fascinated to see where things go with Dredd and Hershey's relationship from here.  Plus I hope there's more of Smiley to come in both Low Life and Dredd.  More Maitland wouldn't go amiss, either.  (And more DeMarco, obviously, but I am entirely predictable on that front.)

Right, come on, 2013, let's see you go ahead and top that lot, then.

[oshii]

Thought it was a nice touch that Dredd gave DeMarco an important task ahead of Point.

[a chosen rider]

Thought it was a nice touch that Dredd gave DeMarco an important task ahead of Point.

Me too.  It's been a good fifteen years since she was kicked out of the Judges, but he automatically trusts her competence to handle it.  It's a neat touch in terms of his relationship with DeMarco, but it's also kind of interesting in the larger context of how Dredd's operating in this storyline: working with members of Wally squad and an off-the-books black ops guy, not seeking Hershey's approval even though she points out that he could have brought her in without Bachmann knowing... he's pretty much gone rogue and started acting on his own initiative instead of following procedures and chain of command.  Could be fascinating to see how his relationship with Justice Department develops from here.

[Goaty]

Sorry, cant help it!

I LOVE THIS IMAGE!!!

[dweezil2]

Picked up the Prog this morning and read it in one sitting.
Utterly brilliant issue and together with Day Of Chaos, the brilliant Dredd movie and all the other superb strips in the Prog and the Meg, it really is an amazing time to be a 2000ad reader.
And there's still the end of year Prog to go!
Well done to all those who have been involved in Thrill-power creation and roll on 2013.
Right, of to read 1812 again.

[Professor Bear]

As a finale, I found this to be less than the sum of its parts, but still a welcome experiment in playing with the 2000ad format, especially as it will now become a headache for the trade collection people who have to think of how to put it all together as a book because of the positive word of mouth it's getting - TIME TO WORK FOR A LIVING YOU DESIGN SCHOOL SCUM - although it is deeply gratifying to me that those who rave about this can now no longer make fun of Marvel or DC crossover events without coming off as snobs and/or hypocrites.
I have some queries like: was the city in the ocean a deliberate visual reference to Independence Day?  or why do squads of assault judges carry spare hobo clothing?  Apart from that, only a couple of duff notes were in the fourth wall-breaking narration that took me out of the story twice, then again with the absolute clanger that was the Judgment Day reference that stopped the story dead for me, while the ultimate payoff being a fistfight with a supervillain felt a bit too much like a 90s superhero comic from Marvel UK.  I know Bachmann's plan was always going to end with a bullet in the head, but the escalating bodycount thing has been done so much already that even though we're told in the story that the Meg is in the poop because there's only twenty judges left in it or something, someone goes AH NO ANOTHER THOUSAND JUDGES ARE DEAD every week, and all I can think of is how inconsequential carnage is in a Dredd strip and you know he's going to be fine as usual even with a gut full of lead.  I liked that Bachmann and Dredd were both intractable to the point that one of them dying was the only way their conflict would be resolved, but when it actually happened it felt like an anticlimax, but is that because the ending was poor or because what preceded it was better?  The latter, I think.

All in all, an enjoyable romp.

[Spikes]

The prog wasnt in its usual place in ASDA's today. And for a terrible moment i thought it may have sold out, or been delayed. But safely in my hands now, 

Its been a long week, glad it didnt turn out to be longer still..
Allowed myself a sneaky peek at the first couple of pages - wow!, but must resist until i can get to pour over it in comfort.

[JOE SOAP]

BLOG Judge Dredd Writer Al Ewing on 2000AD's Surprising Crossover


In which Ewing discusses his plot to kill Dredd and replace him with Giant.

[Hawkmumbler]

BLOG Judge Dredd Writer Al Ewing on 2000AD's Surprising Crossover


In which Ewing discusses his plot to kill Dredd and replace him with Giant.

Bastard! Bastrad! BASTARD!

[Andy Smart]

Fantastic prog and a fantastic end to the story. Like others have mentioned before, the machinations from the previous stories were missing here since everything was now in the open so this was more of an action strip.

I like the meta-fictional nods in the captions of Judges Point and Frank. It's as if they're watching all this as a DVD and providing running commentary. I liked that Dredd didn't actually do a whole lot. Normally he's the only judge who can fix things and the others are useless. So it was nice to see Frank, Point and the supporting cast kicking arse. It also makes sense since he was terribly injured